Heavy rush in banks, treasuries continues in Kerala

Banks and treasuries in Kerala witnessed a heavy rush and serpentine queues on Friday for the second consecutive day, with people queueing up to withdraw their salaries and pensions.

Heavy rush in banks.

About Rs 3,000 crore is needed every month to disburse the salaries to government servants and pensioners in Kerala.

Thiruvananthapuram: Banks and treasuries in Kerala witnessed a heavy rush and serpentine queues on Friday for the second consecutive day, with people queueing up to withdraw their salaries and pensions.

The state government had asked the RBI to release Rs 127 crore to meet the demand for distributing the salaries and pensions, but received only Rs 57 crore till 11 AM, official sources said.

As many as 50 treasuries are yet to receive any of the amounts and the treasury employees are waiting at the banks to get the money released, they said.

Irrespective of cities and villages, including women, senior citizens, could be seen queueing up before treasuries to withdraw the monthly pension since early morning.

An elderly man, who queued up before a suburban treasury here, said that he travelled over 10 mms to reach the bank to collect his monthly pension but was told that there was no money.

Another pensioner said that she was queueing up since 5 am before the treasury.

Protesting the fund crunch in banks and difficulties faced by people, around 50 government employees, under the aegis of NGO association, took out a march towards the district treasury here.

Meanwhile, state Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac said that in New Delhi that the government was considering a plan to shift the accounts of state PSUs, including that of Kerala State Beverages Corporation, to district cooperative banks, with an aim to resolve the issues faced by the cooperative sector in view of the Centre’s demonetisation move.

“Many public sector undertakings including the Beverages are getting fresh currencies. In my opinion, it is better to deposit the amount in cooperative banks. A final decision in this regard will be taken after conferring it with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan,” he told reporters.

About Rs 3,000 crore is needed every month to disburse the salaries to government servants and pensioners in Kerala.

The strength of salaried employees and the pensioners in the state is over five lakh each.